


Praise The Sun, Here Comes The Dark, Bitch

by PaleNoFace



Series: Space Boyfriends [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, BAMF Lance (Voltron), Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Filipino Hunk (Voltron), Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Keith Didn't Drop Out, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Rivals to Friends to Lovers, Salty Lance (Voltron), Sassy Keith (Voltron), Shiro is Tired™, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, look they're gonna butt heads for a while
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-07-01 16:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15777381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaleNoFace/pseuds/PaleNoFace
Summary: "I'm two seconds away to break your pretty face, drop-out.""Oh wait, I remember you," Lance replies, his eyes narrowing. "You were the one with anger issues, right ? Who beat the crap out of Griffin ?"





	1. "Hey, Blue. Tonight, we are making history."

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who got another AU idea and dropped everything to write it ? That's right, me. :'D  
> Also please note that this will be updated randomly, probably with month-long gaps between chapters.
> 
> Title from Darkness Falling (Dark Souls III Rap)

Lance hums, satisfied, and rubs his eye with the palm of his hand. This is it. After so many months of research, he finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel. He stands up and stretches, his entire body getting rid the tension built up after too many hours stayed put in front of his notes. He glances up, smirks at the giant lion head above him and pats fondly the mechanical paw he's been sitting on.

"Hey, Blue. Tonight, we are making history."

The soft purr in the back of his mind rumbles in approval.

____________________________________________________________________________

It's been one year, five months, three days and sixteen hours since they received the news that Kerberos Mission was a failure. Keith keeps track. Of course he keeps track. He can't do otherwise, not when it's his only family member who went missing. Not when his entire life has been dedicated to become the best pilot the Garrison has ever seen, in order to get back on Kerberos and understand, since this very moment.

He's been working hard, to say the least : top rank at every simulation, best marks at every exam, he's really not sparing his efforts. Pidge, Katie Holt from her real name, after getting enlisted in his class under a false identity, has used every minute of their free time to compile documents and records to use against the direction, to prove that they've been lying to everyone about the disappearance of her father and brother. She's as determined as he is about finding out what happened, if not more.

Keith wanted to keep their secret plan for themselves, to be honest, but the third member of their sim crew happened to be such a nice guy, understanding, motivated, down to earth and yet somehow so brave, that they didn't manage to keep him out of the confidence. Kidlat "Hunk" Garrett eventually got involved in their shenanigans after four months, twenty-seven days and two hours after the news. Keith didn't regret even once since.

But now, as he and Hunk are sneaking in the Garrison's corridor past curfew to find Pidge who avoided them the whole day, he really deplores his friend's lack of boldness.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Hunk repeats for what feels like the seventh time.

"I want to know what Pidge is up to," Keith just replies as he rushes past an open door, somehow sneaking on two professors standing in the room.

"Okay !! I'm just- ! I'm just saying this here, right now, on the record : this is a bad idea."

Keith smirks and turns around to look at him playfully.

"You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don't have much of a sense of adventure."

Hunk rolls his eyes and eventually gives up, resigned to follow his friend despite the risk of getting caught after curfew. They make silently their way to the roof where they catch the tiny shape of Pidge, sitting in the middle of her stuff. As she doesn't respond when Hunk whisper-shouts her name, Keith walks up to her to tap on her shoulder. She yelps, her headphones jumping comically off her head, and glares up.

"Keith ! Are you trying to kill me ?!"

"If you didn't want us to sneak up on you maybe you should have considered telling us you were coming up there in the first place."

No matter how angry he tries to sound, Keith can't help the soft edge his voice takes. Pidge lowers her eyes, bashful, and picks nervously at her tech.

"I scanned all the way to Kerberos," she mutters, waiting for her friend to lose his cool.

Hunk crawls up to their level and drops unceremoniously on the ground, already poking at Pidge's stuff and being swatted away. Keith chews his bottom lip in irritation and crosses his arms, preferring to look at the screen instead of yelling at her.

"You aren't mad ?" she frowns once she's done yelling at Hunk for touching her equipment.

"You should have told me," he mumbles. "What if you found something ?"

"I would have told you immediately, Keith, never doubt that," she says, her eyes softening.

"Then talk to me next time."

"Okay."

"So what you got ?" Hunk asks, cradling his hurt hand to his chest.

"Alien chatting, mostly," she sighs, exasperated, "Nothing new really. They keep repeating what we already knew."

"That Voltron stuff again ?" the engineer asks. "Do we even know what it means ?"

Pidge shakes her head and Keith sighs again. Hunk groans quietly and leans backward, head towards the night sky.

"Have you guys ever, I don't know, considered the possibility that there really was some malfunction or crew mistake ?"

The two of them immediately bristle and Hunk rises his hands in surrender.

"Forget I said anything."

"They were the best, Hunk," Pidge hisses under her breath. "There wasn't any mistake."

Keith is about to add something when the Garrison alarm blares, startling the three friends. Iverson's voice booms over it, like a thunderbolt :

"Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lock-down. Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat : All students are to remain in barracks until further notice."

As they exchange a worried look, wondering if they should go back inside or not, a burning light crosses the sky above their heads.

"What's going on ? Is that a meteor ?!" Hunk yelps, "A very, very big... meteor ?"

Pidge shuffles through her bag and grabs her pair of binoculars, pointing them towards the OVNI.

"It's a ship !" she gasps, already passing themto Keith, the latter's eyes widening.

"That's not one of ours !" he says, giving the binoculars to Hunk.

"No, it's one of theirs," she replies, sounding dismayed by her own conclusion.

"So wait, there really are aliens out there ?!" Hunk calls but earns no response because the ship lands not far away from the Garrison in a deafening explosion and land-rovers leave the building in the general direction of the crash site.

"We've gotta see that ship !" Pidge decrees as she's already on her feet, trying to stuff all her machines in her backpack.

"Hunk, come on !" Keith harangues him, following her like a second shadow and barely hearing his friend whining behind him.

"Oh, this is the worst team-building exercise ever."

By some miracle, they don't meet anyone on their way to the crash site. They lay down on a nearby cliff, spying the Garrison team building a quarantine tent. Pidge, who got back her binoculars, is looking right at the entrance.

"We'll never get past all those guards to get a look."

Keith groans quietly and takes the tool from her as she starts typing on her laptop.

"Aww, man. Yeah, we- Yeah, I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right ?" Hunk is bad at hiding his relief, but Pidge already has a finger up to interrupt him.  
"Wait. They set up a camera in there and I grabbed its feed. Look !"

Keith feels his blood leaving his face as he glances at the screen. On the feed, Takashi Shirogane, pilot of the Kerberos Mission and incidentally his brother, is strapped on a table while Iverson is talking to him and technicians are probing at... God, what happened to his arm ?

"Guess he didn't die in space after all, uh," Hunk comments.

Keith peels off his eyes from the screen. This is not how he imagined getting Shiro back. Not in this state, not scared, not... mutilated.

"Where's the rest of the crew ?" Pidge whispers and clenches her jaw, clearly fighting back her tears. "They didn't ask about the rest of the crew."

"We have to get him out."

"Keith, buddy, I hate to be the voice of reason here, always, but weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards ?"

"This is my brother in there ! We-! We just have to think. Could we tunnel in ?"

"Disguising ourselves, maybe ?" the big guy proposes, but Pidge shakes her head.

"No, what we need is a distraction."

As to make her right, a loud explosion bursts in the distance, making them scream and cover their ears.

"Is that the aliens ?!" Hunk screams over the tinnitus, "Are—Tha—The—Is that the aliens ?! Are they here ?! They got here so quick !"

"No," Pidge says and points at a cliff in front of them. "Those explosions were a distraction, for him !"

Keith squints and eventually makes out the form of an hovercraft flying full speed towards the tent. An intuition flashes in his mind and he grabs the binoculars once again, directing them at the newcomer.

"No way...! Guys, come on, we can't let him get in there before us !"

He drops everything and runs down the cliff despite any common sense, Pidge hot on his heels and Hunk right behind.

"Who is it?" calls the latter.

"Lance !" he screams back, barely looking where he puts his feet.

"Who ?" Pidge shouts, trying her best to keep up with her small legs.

"Are you sure ?" the other asks over her head.

"I'd recognize that idiot anywhere !" he grunts and skips forward above a crevasse.

With their speed, it takes them less than a few minutes to reach the quarantined zone and run into the examination room, where Lance is already lifting Shiro from his cot.

"Don't touch him," Keith growls and rushes to takes Shiro's arm, putting half of the man's weight on his shoulders.

Lance glowers at him and tugs down the blues scarf hiding the bottom half of his face.

"Who are you ?" he hisses.

Keith glares back, not so subtly trying to take Shiro away from Lance.

"I'm Keith ?"

Is that guy having memory trouble or something ? He frowns harder and says :

"... We were in the same class at the Garrison ?"

Lance looks sincerely astonished.

"Really ? Are you an engineer or something ?"

"No ! I'm a pilot ! Top of the class in flight, doesn't ring any bell ?"

Seriously, is he trying to annoy him on purpose ?

"I'm two seconds away to break your pretty face, drop-out."

"Oh wait, I remember you," Lance replies, his eyes narrowing. "You were the one with anger issues, right ? Who beat the crap out of Griffin ?"

"It was two years ago !" Keith shouts, feeling his cheeks warming up.

"Well, congratulations," the taller man grins sarcastically. "You clearly haven't improved on the anger department."

Hunk and Pidge finally catch up and watch them bickering before the first glances back and blanches.

"Oh, man, they're coming back and they do not look happy. We gotta go. Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you ?"

Lance nods and waves at them to climb onto his hovercraft, the whole thing tipping over when Hunk settles on the back of it.

"Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us ?" Pidge grumbles, holding somehow onto Shiro, stopping him from slipping from the vehicle.

"No," Lance simply replies as he grabs a pair of driving glasses and settling them on his eyes.

As soon as he takes off, a group of land-rovers follow them. Keith clings onto Lance's floating jacket like his life depends on it -which is probably the case- and Pidge would fall off if not for Shiro's weight pining her down.

"Why am I holding this guy ?" she bitches, keeping the passed out man however secured on her lap.

"Hey, we did all fit !" Hunk giggles from the back seat.

"Can't this thing go any faster ?" Keith grumbles and tugs on the jacket.

The pilot glares at him from above his shoulder for a split second before turning his attention back to where they're going.

"We could toss out some non-essential weight."

Keith almost hits him.

"Garrett, lean left !" Lance suddenly shouts, startling Pidge who almost slips again.

Hunk complies and the hovercraft turns, causing Garrison rovers to crash.

"Aw man ! Mr. Harris just chiked out Professor Montgomery !" he comments. "No, no, okay, she's fine."

"Garrett, lean right !" the pilot calls again, the whole vehicle tipping dangerously as it jumps from cliff to cliff.

"Guys ?" Hunk stutters, "Is th-th-th-tha-tha—Is that a cliff up ahead ?"

"Oh no," Keith only has time to say, before Lance is leaning forward, smirking.

"Yep," he says, popping the p.

The speed increases violently, causing everyone on board to scream and hang on anything within reach.

"You're going to kill us all !" Keith yells as soon as he's done screaming.

"Shut up and trust me !" the other replies and without warning makes the overboard jump and land safely and the bottom of the cliff.

They ride most of the night, and when Lance finally pulls out in front of a cave, Keith's legs are more stiff than ever. He immediatley jumps on his feet and helps Pidge take down Shiro, who's still passed out. He gets a good look at him for the first time since he discovered him. Apart from the prosthetic arm and the fresh scar across the nose, Shiro has now a tuft of white hair right in the middle. Keith's heart squeezes at the memory of Shiro telling him jokingly that the young boy was the reason why he was growing white hair.

They lay him on the ground of the cave, not too deep inside but not too close to the exit either, in case anyone would be passing by. He distractedly catches sight of Lance and Hunk grinning at each other, like long-lost friends meeting for the first time in ages. Pidge is not far from them, sitting on the ground and checking her inventory to make sure nothing broke during their wild ride.

Silence eventually downs on their small group as the night goes on. Lance and him exchanged another couple of glares before the taller boy decided to go to sleep, soon enough imitated by Pidge. Hunk sits for a while next to him, quietly, because he knows that Keith doesn't need to fill the silence. They eventually fall asleep too, Hunk laying with his back to the outside, Keith propped up against the wall. He knows that he will regret it in the morning, but he can't afford to fall deep asleep when Shiro isn't in absolute safety.

So he checks his knife one last time and closes his eyes.


	2. 'Paladins material"

When Keith next wakes up, a couple of hours later, Shiro is standing outside in the light of early morning.

It feels somewhat surreal. Shiro is back. Standing in the already scorching sun, like it's the best thing that happened to him since forever. And it probably is.

"It's good to have you back."

Shiro turns around to look at him. They exchange a tired look. They're messes, both of them. But there is something shining in the older brother's eyes, like relief or something.

"Heh. It's good to be back."

There is the ghost of a smile on Shiro's face, not quite there but not invisible. Keith doesn't know what to do with that. He's not awake enough for this. He clears his throat.

"So. What happened out there ? Where... were you ?"

"I wish I could tell you," Shiro sighs. "My head's still pretty scrambled. I was on an... Alien ship but... Somehow I escaped ? It's all a blur. How did you know to come save me when I crashed ?"

"Pidge and I have been looking for you," Keith says, grateful for the change of atmosphere as he steps back onto familiar ground. "We were collecting data on the roof when we saw the light and... It was you."

Shiro hums and looks back at the cave, where Hunk and Pidge are plotting something over some of the young Holt's stuff. Lance is sitting not very far inside, typing at some communicator device on his wrist. Keith is too far to see correctly, but the hologram shows someone with dark skin and white hair responding to him. Lance then looks up and scowls as he catches Keith staring, before saying something to his interlocutor and turning off the device.

"Everyone !" he calls, still glaring a little in Keith's general direction. "I have some stuff you probably want to see."

"I don't-" Keith starts, about to say that he's not following Lance anywhere, but the other cuts him immediately.

"I guess you guys know about Voltron ?"

Keith snaps his mouth closed. Pidge almost hit her head on the ceiling with how high she jumps. Hunk tries to hide a shiver and fails miserably. Shiro looks like he just saw a ghost.

"Good," Lance continues, clapping his hands together. "So you guys know aliens exist. This way please !" he adds, making a show of pointing at the back of the cave.

"Where are you taking us ?" Shiro asks curiously, falling into easy steps behind him.

"There a large cave with water down there," Lance explains while untangling his communicator from his arm and shoving it in his over-sized jacket's pocket. "That's where my beast is parked."

"Waitwaitwait, you put an engine down a cave full of _water_ ?" Hunk whines, his technician instinct probably crying already.

"Yep," Lance replies, popping the p, "Come on, we're not that far."

And there they are. At first, Keith doesn't notice much, barely a blue-ish glow against the stone, but then the floor almost opens under his feet and it's only thanks to Shiro pulling him back that he doesn't fall head first.

"Is that-"

"Is that a lion ?!" Pidge yells, her high-pitched scream reverberating all around them. "Oh my God, oh my God ! Is that supposed to be Voltron ?"

"Not quite. It's only a part of it."

Lance finally reaches the bottom of the cave and gently pats the "paw" of whatever this monstrous ship is supposed to be, and the giant head suddenly lower to greet him. _Okay, so it's sentient_. Well fuck everything he knows about science.

"Hello, beautiful," the boy coos over Hunk's terrified shriek.

"What the fuuuuuck," Keith shouts-whispers, but no one looks at him because there is a literal metallic, conscious war machine crowding their space.

"It's a lot to explain," Lance sighs, "But to make a very long story short, aliens are real, there's a major invasion going on and I'm trying to help a space princess to stop it."

"You went to space ?!" Hunk asks.

"And came back ?" Shiro adds, like it's the weirdest part of it all.

"Okay, look-" Lance raises his hands in surrender, a weird glint shining in his eyes, "I don't think we really have time for a lot of questions, between the Garrison on the hunt and the Galra so close to attack. So I'll just ask you this : do you want to help us save the universe ?"

____________________________________________________________________________

"I rest my case, you're the worst pilot ever !" Keith roars over the heavy fire currently shot in their direction.

Lance only grunts as a reply and does another barrel roll, to Hunk's deepest regret, and Pidge is thrown unceremoniously in the back of the cabin by the force of the acceleration. Shiro is the last standing, fingers digging in the pilot seat and eyes switching between the different screens.

"Brace yourselves !" Lance yells as another alarm goes off and he has to dodge another ray beam.

Blue eventually stabilizes herself and shoots back, freezing laser reading to go. The side of the Galra vessel is already punctuated with holes from her precedent attacks, but the ship still fires at them and Lance knows he has to finish quickly if he wants to keep everyone alive.

In the end, it's a very well placed shot in the back of the spaceship that destroys it, and Lance looses no time in retreating : the lion opens a wormhole and launches herself into it without a second thought.

Time goes funny for a hot minute, and suddenly they're on the other side of the tunnel, and Blue is landing, and Lance rushes out as soon as the way is clear. The rest of the team, a little shaken still, stays in the cabin. Hunk rushes in the back to vomit. Keith winces.

"Can someone just explain to me what happened ?" Pidge asks, shaking her head to clear her vision.

"Basically Lance just shot at a bunch of aliens that wanted to kill us ? For some reason ? And then landed us on a planet that is definitely not Earth ?! I'm sorry, I'm still not over the fact that aliens are real," Hunk sighs.

"Where did he go anyway ?" Keith grunts, squinting suspiciously at the screens like they would reveal where the other pilot is hiding.

And it does the trick, because Lance comes back, a certain spring in his step as he climbs back inside the mouth of the lion and asks them to follow him.

"Allura wants to meet you."

Shiro and Pidge exchange a look that says _who the hell is Allura ?_ while Hunk and Keith are already on his heels and follow him to the doors of the castle, that for some reason Keith notices only now.

"Usually we should have gotten through decontamination before we go anywhere, but we're particularly short on time," Lance babbles as he lead them through a labyrinth or corridors and hallways, "so I'm just gonna hope none of you had the flu recently and roll with it."

A last door wooshes open and they step into a large illuminated room, holographic maps filling from top to bottom with white lines and colorful points, and in the middle of all of this...

"Princess !" Lance calls, "They're here !"

A tall lady raises her head from behind a motherboard, white hair spilling all over her shoulders and long ears pointing on each side of her face, and there is no way she's human. She's too tall, too sharp, too _everything_ in a terrifying way to be anything but alien.

"Lance," she greets with a surprising British accent, "Thank you for being so quick. Time is precious, we have to get to work."

Lance nods and exits the room in two long steps, leaving the dumbstruck group of humans alone with the alien princess.

"I hate to repeat myself," Pidge snarks, her arms crossed on her chest, "but what is happening ?"

"My apologies," the alien sighs, strolling closer and damn, she really is tall. "I am Princess Allura of Altea, and I am trying to collect all five Lions of Voltron to put a stop on the never-ending expansion of the Galra invasion."

"How can we help ?" Shiro immediately offers, and Keith almost want to smack him across the head, because who the hell just rolls with this kind of situation ?

"Lance told me he believes you could be... how did he put it ? Ah yes, _Paladins material_. Oh, the Paladins are the ones to pilot the Lions and, by extension, Voltron."

"I keep hearing about this Voltron, but I have still no idea of what it is," Keith states, drawing all eyes on him.

"It's a special weapon in the form of a giant robot," the Princess explains. "And it needs fives pilots working as a team to assemble and be the most efficient possible."

"Five pilots ? Don't you need five lions, then ?" Hunk interrupts, raising his hand. "How many do you have ?"

"As right now, we only have the Blue Lion that Lance retrieved and used to get you here, and the Black Lion, but we can't access this one before we assemble the other three."

"That's kind of stupid," Keith argues. "Why don't you unlock it right now ? Two battle beasts are better than one."

"We could," Lance says as he appears in the doorway, an bright orange man with pointy ears and a glorious mustache following him, "But it won't be useful until we have the rest. So, we need to move."

The man smiles to them, presenting himself as Coran, Allura's royal adviser, and goes in the back of the room where he starts typing on different screens, maps whirling around him at high speed.

Lance steps closer too, purposefully bumping into Keith as he passes by, and goes to stand behind Allura. It's only then that Keith sees what he's wearing : it's a blue, black and white armor, but looks very light and thin and therefore protecting absolutely batshit. He doubts it would stop any blow, but he doesn't say anything because Lance seems to hate him enough as it is, so he mimics Pidge by crossing his arms and keeps his mouth shut.

"We would be faster if we split up in teams to get the rest," Lance says, before turning to the princess. "Did you decide who gets which lion ?"

"I was just about to. Would you like to have an input ?"

"You're the leader, Allura," Lance blushes, visibly liking the attention - Keith has to fight the eye roll because he's so close, so very close to punch him right in the face. "But I'd say Pidge gets Green."

"Fair. Green is the most intelligent, the fastest to adapt of all lions," Allura explains. "She needs a smart pilot who can keep up."

"How about... Hunk for Yellow ? I'm sure those two would get along very well."

"The Yellow Lion is built for defense," she continues, "He's a little slow, but sturdy."

"It's a bunker," Lance grins at Hunk's attention. "You're gonna love him."

"Red is the most wild of them. He can't be tamed by everybody and will only respect strong-willed people."

"I guess Hot Pants McMullet is the perfect match then," the Blue Paladin sneers, and Keith might create a diplomatic incident right then and there.

"That leaves Black," Allura concludes, her eyes landing on Shiro. "He's the head of Voltron."

"Shiro, will you be our team leader ?" Lance asks, once again dead serious. "You're the senior officer here. What should we do ?"

"Will it stop Zarkon ?"

"I sure hope so, my boy," Coran says from the back of the room, coming back to the group with a tablet and a twist in his mustache. "Or else, even your home planet is at risk to be invaded."

"Then let's do it," Shiro decides. "We have to get those lions."


End file.
